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Governmentâs master plans start to come together, but challenges remain. 05:47
President Cyril Ramaphosa delivers Sona 2021 in Parliament. Image: GCIS
Just less than a year ago President Cyril Ramaphosa’s plans were upended by the Covid-19 pandemic. The arrival of the deadly virus could not have come at a worse time. The country’s economy was already stalling and the government’s fiscal position was becoming precarious.
But even with Covid-19 forcing a change in priorities, the state, judging by the goals set out in the president’s 2020 State of the Nation Address (Sona) still managed to achieve some of its most notable goals – such as the opening-up of the electricity market.
The federal cabinet on Tuesday criticised the Sindh government for playing a “dirty role” in last year’s wheat crisis by “hoarding” millions of tonnes of the commodity. AFP/File
ISLAMABAD: The federal cabinet on Tuesday criticised the Sindh government for playing a “dirty role” in last year’s wheat crisis by “hoarding” millions of tonnes of the commodity.
The cabinet could not reach a decision on the raise in salaries of federal secretariat employees and a follow-up meeting between representatives of the employees and Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid on the issue also remained inconclusive.
The employees then decided to observe a strike on Wednesday (today) and stage a sit-in with the support of the opposition Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM).
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The government is tracing to come up with a new version approach on the power sector development with an open electric tariff against the current feed in tariff (FIT). The power sector reform needs more that USD 6.5 billion in the coming about five years to electrify major parts of the society from the current one third of power access on grid.
The power sector reform has revised the previous roadmap on the energy sector development, which is critical to assure other economic and social developments that the government tabled to meet by 2030.
To attain the goal for the national electrification program, the government has estimated USD 6.5 billion that will be filled from different sources.
The change in the tune from ‘dumsor’ to free electricity could not have been possible without the Finance Minister designate, Ken Ofori-Atta having not been resourceful since 2017 to 2021 to meet Ghana’s financial commitments to Independent Power Producers (IPPs). Painfully yet plainly Ghanaians had to go through ‘dumsor’ partly due to government’s inability to pay IPPs to keep the lights on. We don’t have to look further for a confirmation. Under persistent pressure in 2015, the then Deputy Power Minister, John Jinapor admitted that money was partly to blame for the excruciating power challenges Ghanaians endured. The persistent unreliable power supply was compounded by bad Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) that saddled the nation with huge debts in the energy sector. Sadly but admittedly this avoidable energy sector debt still poses a threat to the economy for adding up to the country’s debt stock.
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